This invention is in the field of cooking equipment and is more particularly directed to the field of outdoor barbecue grills employing an open fire providing a bed of coals for effecting the cooking function.
Outdoor cooking grills of the type employing a fire pan over which a food supporting rack is mounted are well-known and widely used. One shortcoming of grills of the foregoing type is that when they are used to cook meat, such as steaks or the like, it is necessary that the meat be turned over for both sides to be properly cooked; this fact lengthens the cooking time and involves some inconvenience to the user. It is also desirable that the rate at which the cooking function progresses be adjustable in order to avoid burning of the food while permitting completion of the cooking within a reasonable time. Conventional barbecue grills of the foregoing type have consequently employed a variety of adjustable members for effecting a raising or lowering of the food supporting grill so as to vary the distance of the food on the grill from the members providing the cooking heat. Frequently such adjusting means becomes difficult to operate as a result of corrosion or the presence of ashes or other material in the moving parts which impairs the necessary movement of the parts. Accidents consequently frequently occur as a result of attempts to adjust faulty grill lifting or lowering components during the cooking operation.
Other prior art devices have proposed to employ vertical grill members positioned between fire grates for cooking food suspended between the grates on both sides simultaneously. However, such prior art devices have not achieved widespread acceptance due to a variety of factors including the difficulty of positioning food of varying thicknesses between the fire grate components and an inability to accurately adjust the fire grates with respect to the food holding components to provide for an optimum cooking rate. The best known prior art comprises U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,650,181; 1,701,033; 2,335,217; 2,441,190; 2,456,397; 2,690,171; 2,821,187; 2,923,229; 3,091,170; 3,140,651; 3,237,621; 3,276,351, 3,302,555; 3,611,912; 3,742,838; and 4,120,237.
Therefore, it is the primary object of this invention to provide a new and improved outdoor grill-type cooking means.
A further object of this invention is the provision of new and improved grill-type cooking means capable of holding food products of varying thicknesses without any need for adjustment.
Yet another object of this invention is the provision of new and improved grill-type cooking means having new and improved means for adjusting the position of the fire bed with respect to the food being cooked.